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But most of them just control the windows media volume setting.Īnd honestly I think that is the best you are going to get. They are meant for audio playback control so mute volume skip song. Limited programmability in the software and you would really have to hack it together. I actually got curious and looked at those generic volume controllers. I would suggest staying away from a potentiometer that could kill the USB mic fast. the branded ones always come in packages that include the speakers and/or mic) there are a variety of USB based volume controls you can buy for both input and output (mic and speakers) for the PC (although I can't really recommend any brands because they're mostly generic peripherals you can find everywhere. because potentiometers have a range of power modulation between the states of ON and OFF (which is essentially a volume control knob) you can just use that instead. If you are willing to search around, a power modulation (potentiometer) based solution would be your best option.
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this would be the most ideal solution to your problem.
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I suggest you just get a DAC since they're fairly cheap and they come with a variety of input and output options (depending on what DAC you get) and use an XLR based input because mics that use phantom power will always get better quality audio input than USB based ones. that's just how the USB port works (this is why a lot of consumer grade USB devices come with software or automatic drivers that handle active and low power states to prevent them from being "ejected" by Windows, ex: Xbox Controllers don't need to be unplugged from your PC because Windows automatically detects whether you are actively using it or not)
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If your device is USB based and you put a power switch on it, then Windows will almost always detect that device as being "ejected" from the USB port because power has been cut off.
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